Promise of a Lifetime
by Fiachra Ochiern
Summary: Twoshot. He first began to love her when he realized how similar they were. She first began to love him when she saw their differences. NaruSaku
1. Naruto

_He knew he loved her . . ._

He was twelve and wanted a girlfriend. All the cool guys—meaning Sasuke—had girls throwing themselves on them, so he wanted a girlfriend, too. And Sakura-chan was the prettiest, smartest girl in their class.

Never let it be said that Uzumaki Naruto didn't aim high.

"You have such a large, charming forehead. Makes me want to kiss it."

He saw her look up in surprise and resisted the urge to rub the back of his head sheepishly. Sasuke wouldn't have said such a corny line. Naruto quickly backtracked to cover his mistake.

"That's something that idiot Naruto would say."

Naruto saw Sakura's head drop suddenly as pink dusted her cheeks, but he didn't stop to think about what it could mean. He was too busy keeping up his Henge of Sasuke and trying to remember that he couldn't act like himself for once.

"Sakura, there's something I want to ask you." He sat down next to her on the concrete bench outside the Academy. "What do you think of Naruto?"

Sakura wouldn't lie to Sasuke. Especially about Naruto. So, Naruto could at least get Sakura's real opinion about him as Sasuke. Sakura's blush disappeared, and her head hung down seriously.

"He's always getting in my way when I do something important," murmured the girl. "He just likes seeing me struggle."

Naruto frowned and tried to keep from flinching. He didn't know Sakura thought this about him; he wasn't _trying _to make Sakura's life miserable.

"Naruto doesn't understand anything about me," Sakura continued. "He's just annoying."

Sasuke's face was doing a pretty good job at exhibiting stoicism, but that was mostly because Naruto's face beneath the Henge had fallen into disappointment. He didn't want to be annoying. He never meant to hurt Sakura-chan. He just wanted . . .

"All I want is for you to acknowledge me, Sasuke-kun."

Naruto looked up in shock. Sakura's words had hit his chest hard enough to stop his breathing for a moment. He forgot that he was supposed to be Sasuke. He forgot that this trick was only meant to find out what Sakura thought about him. Sakura had just revealed something that Naruto never thought she would have.

She knew the same longing as Naruto. To be acknowledged.

"I'm absolutely serious about this." Sakura's cheeks turned the same shade as her hair as she leaned in closer to his face. "Because . . . I like you a lot, Sasuke-kun."

Naruto's breath still hadn't returned to him when he started to follow Sakura's example, leaning in to the girl he most wanted to be his girlfriend. His brain refused to consider the idea that this might be a mistake or that Sakura-chan would be really mad if she ever found out that she had kissed Naruto instead of her Sasuke-kun. Naruto didn't even care. He just knew why he liked Sakura-chan so much. She was someone who knew the same pain as him. And she was about to kiss him.

At least she was until the stomach pains hit and Naruto muttered a quick, breathy excuse and rushed off before the image of Sasuke could disappear in a cloud of smoke.

. . .

It wasn't even a few months later that he saw her again, this time as himself, and this time she was crying.

"Naruto, I beg you," sobbed Sakura. "Please bring Sasuke back."

Tears streamed down her cheeks as Naruto stood in front of her, still trying to process everything. Sasuke was being a jerk and had left Konoha without telling anyone. But apparently, Sakura-chan had seen him. And Sasuke-teme had still left.

"I couldn't do it." Sakura shut her eyes tightly, but the tears didn't stop. "I couldn't stop him. The only person who can probably save Sasuke-kun is you, Naruto. Only you . . ."

For a moment, Naruto felt the full weight of Sakura's belief in him. If he was really the only one who could save Sasuke, then he couldn't afford to fail. He had already assured the pink-haired girl that Sasuke would never go to someone like Orochimaru for power. It had been their first date so far. It would probably be their _only _date, but Naruto didn't mind. Suddenly, he smiled in remembrance.

"Sakura-chan, you really like Sasuke, huh?" It was a stupid question, and Naruto already knew the answer. "I know how much pain you're in because of Sasuke. I can understand."

She wanted Sasuke's acknowledgement. Just like Naruto wanted from Sasuke. And from her. But the difference was that Sakura had already acknowledged him. Not with a date or her tears, but with her trust in him to return Sasuke to her. In return for that acknowledgement, Naruto would do anything for her.

"Naruto, thank you," Sakura managed to murmur through her tears.

"Don't worry," commanded Naruto. "I'll bring him back. Promise of a lifetime!"

He knew that he would never stand a chance once he brought Sasuke back—after punching a few of the bastard's teeth out for making Sakura-chan cry, of course. But bringing Sasuke back meant that Sakura would smile again. So, Naruto grinned the widest that he could and gave Sakura the 'nice guy' pose. Right then, with Sakura-chan looking at him so hopefully with tears streaming down her cheeks . . .

_. . . he knew he loved her._

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A/N: Yes, I like this pairing, and yes, I think it's one of the closest things that actually match to canon. So, the standard etiquette applies; don't flame me because of the subject material, but feel free to comment on my style or grammar or whatever. I got the dialogue from a fan-translated web site, so it may be a bit different than the actual manga, but I don't own anything Naruto (not even the copyright, so don't sue me).

There will be a second chapter in Sakura's point of view soon, making this my one twoshot.

Sincerely, Fia


	2. Sakura

_She knew she loved him . . ._

She was sixteen and wanted her teammates back. They had both left her to get stronger, both for the sake of his brother: one to kill and one to save. And she was determined to give them both a tongue-lashing followed by a smack on the head—or vice versa—when they returned.

Never let it be said that Haruno Sakura didn't care about her boys.

"How do you remove a bijuu?"

Chiyo of Suna didn't look at her companions or at the young woman who had asked the question. Personally, Sakura didn't care _where _the old woman was looking as long as she answered. Naruto had just come back, taller, stronger, if not a little lacking in the maturity department. But Sakura had since stopped trying to reconcile the clown that thought up new perverted jutsu with the young man who had unceremoniously declared that his body held one of the greatest monsters in the shinobi world. Naruto was Naruto, jinchuuriki or not.

"If," began Chiyo in a rasping voice that betrayed her age as much as her wrinkled skin did, "for even an instant, a sealing jutsu which releases the exact amount of power to match up with the bijuu's is used . . ."

Sakura had only heard stories of the Kyuubi's attack on Konoha, but they all spoke of the absolute power wielded by the bijuu. To match that power would take an incredible amount of chakra. It made her wonder just how powerful Akatsuki was.

"That takes a considerable amount of time," Chiyo continued. "But if that were to be done, the jinchuuriki would . . ."

Sakura had only heard that uncomfortable, reluctant trailing off of sentences twice in her life. The first time had been when Ino had told her that they could no longer be friends but rivals. The second time was when she was standing outside Naruto's hospital room, listening to him explain to Shikamaru that Sasuke had disowned Konoha and his friends for Orochimaru and his promise of power.

It seemed that unfinished sentences never boded well in Sakura's life.

"You mean . . ." Even Sakura couldn't bring herself to voice the thought she knew was coming. Akatsuki were interested in the bijuu, not the jinchuuriki.

"Yes," Chiyo answered coldly. "If the bijuu is extracted, the jinchuuriki will die."

Sakura's heart froze while inexplicably continuing to beat. It was the only way she could explain why each throb felt like it was shooting poison throughout her veins. Naruto had his back turned to Sakura so that she couldn't read his reactions to Chiyo's dim proclamation. Meanwhile, Kakashi's visage was grim in a way that Sakura had only seen in relation to Sasuke's defection.

"The two I mentioned before," Chiyo interrupted Sakura's thoughts, "the jinchuuriki of the sand apart from Gaara, had Shukaku extracted from their bodies and died."

She said it so easily and so finally. They died, and that was the end of it. Sakura's teeth came down on her bottom lip hard. She didn't dare inhale because she knew that it would turn into a gasp or a sob. She couldn't lose Naruto. She just couldn't. Sasuke was already gone. She couldn't lose both of her boys.

"You're always being made to cry, Sakura-chan."

The statement shocked Sakura enough to make her turn towards the voice. She blinked, and the tears that had been swimming in her eyes spilled over to cut their way down her cheeks. But Naruto didn't look half as serious as he had sounded.

"I told you not to worry." He was smiling that stupid, happy grin of his. The one that made his eyes crinkle. The same one he had smiled when he made his _promise of a lifetime_. "Because I'll definitely save Gaara."

Sakura frowned at his unassailable optimism. He couldn't be that much of a dunce. Gaara might be already lost to them, but he _had _to know that Akatsuki was after him, too.

"Naruto!" she couldn't help crying. "It's you I'm—"

"C'mon." Naruto cut her off with the order. "Let's hurry."

He shrugged his pack more firmly onto his shoulder as he turned away from her. Sakura stared after him, still trying to process the obvious dismissal. Didn't he understand that _he _was the one in danger? Kakashi followed after his student silently, and Sakura swallowed back her tears. They weren't doing any good, anyway.

She picked up her own pack and followed her team while a small voice in her head that she hadn't heard in a long while assured her that if Naruto died on her, she'd bring him back just to punch him into the next week for leaving her, too.

. . .

It was only a few weeks later that she was crying again, still over him, and he still didn't know it.

"Yamato-taichou," she began hesitantly, "that jutsu you used to stop Naruto just now, would you be willing to teach it to me?"

She could feel the eyes of the former ANBU on her as she watched Naruto's skin beneath her hands. Red and blistering tissue slowly knit itself back together as she forced her chakra into his system. He shouldn't be healing this fast, but Sakura knew why it was happening. Kyuubi.

"I'm afraid I can't," Yamato replied, almost sadly. "You see, being compatible with Shodai-sama's cells, I'm the only person in Konoha who _can _use it."

Sakura pressed her lips together in disappointment, but a part of her wondered if she was really surprised. Why did she think that she would be able to hold back a bijuu, even if it was contained inside her teammate?

"That's why I was chosen to lead this team," admitted Yamato.

The dark man with Shodai's legacy in his blood went on to explain how the jutsu worked and why the necklace around Naruto's neck was so important, but Sakura had stopped listening. Her mind, wondrous as it had always been at paying attention to lectures, still registered the explanation enough to understand it, but her eyes were focused on Naruto's face. Even in blissful unconsciousness, his eyes were squeezed tightly shut as crimson chakra slowly retreated back into his body, leaving his skin slightly pink, like a newborn's.

Sakura felt the tears beginning as a hot prickle at the back of her eyes. She commanded herself not to cry, after all, she was still working on healing Naruto. A picture of the cause of his injuries suddenly flooded her mind: chakra made of red and black and things that all people, even ninja, feared. Naruto's face was slowly becoming calmer, less pained, now.

"Same as always," Sakura muttered. "I can only do the dumbest things for Naruto."

She had called to him, pleaded, _begged _him to stop so that he wouldn't damage himself any more, and she had only gotten hurt because of it. Yamato had had to capture Naruto like an animal and then drain away the cursed chakra in a way that made the boy howl in pain; like an animal at first but then the cry had turned into a decidedly human voice. It was a sound Sakura never wanted to hear again.

"It's not what you _do _for Naruto that's important," Yamato said suddenly. "It's how strongly you _feel _about him that counts."

Sakura's tear-filled eyes jumped to her commander. What was he saying? Naruto was important to her, of course. He had a sense of comfort about him, like he could solve a problem through sheer tenacity. He was her teammate. He was the only one who understood how important her bonds were, both to him and to Sasuke. Naruto was . . .

"Sakura, I can tell just by looking at you." Yamato was boasting a small, knowing smile now. "The truth is, you—"

A pained, uncomfortable groan cut off Yamato's revelation, and all thoughts fled Sakura's mind when she saw Naruto's eyes flicker open to reveal a thin line of cerulean blue beneath his lids.

"Sakura-chan," he murmured.

She smiled at him then, all thoughts of being careful in front of Yamato completely gone for the sheer joy of seeing Naruto, really Naruto without any traces of the demon inside him. And then he had to ruin the moment by convincing himself that her tears were due to Sai's lack of people skills and her monstrous strength, and she was compelled to punch him. Part of her was glad things were back to normal, and Naruto was whining at her again. Because then she could forget about that one moment where she knew that Yamato-taichou was right. That moment when, without a doubt . . .

_. . . she knew she loved him._

_

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A/N: Ha, done with a twoshot. Sakura's point of view turned out to be a little bit longer than Naruto's and I'm not 100% happy with it (I still find it weird that Naruto is easier for me to write, but moving on), but I'm glad I finally got it posted. Hopefully you are, too!

Sincerely,

Fia


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